StigmergicWeb

Alec Couros and I are in the midst of putting together a course for the University of Regina. Officially, the course number and name is EC&I 831: Computers in the Classroom: Appropriate Curriculum and Instruction Related to Computer Technology but Alec and I are referring to it as Open, Connected and Social Pedagogy. We’ll be offering it in the second semester, from January to April 2008.

The official outline is rather vague, but we will be focusing on the principles of learning being “open, connected and social” (full credit to Alan, D’Arcy and Brian for coming up with that pithy little phrase) and focusing specifically on open and social tools/software for the classroom, how they can be used and how pedagogy changes the way we perceive and guide learning and knowledge. Social learning and connectivism are two key pedagogical concepts that guide the course. The will be offered completely online. We’re planning to use a synchronous tool for once a week get-togethers, about 1.5 hours/week where we can discuss course goals, content and create collaborative opportunities.

That’s the elevator pitch. What we really want to do is get some educators and edtech folks together for some great conversations and opportunities to collaborate. There are two ways we’re looking for people to participate. Obviously we are looking for students since we need some enrollment for the course to run. If we get a high demand for the course, that will help to make sure we run it again next year. If you are interested in that way of participating, details are for registration are available at the Distance Learning Division of the U of R.

The other way you can participate is involved in the discussions and collaborations. If you’ve got some ideas about using social software/web apps/web 2.0 (ugghh), we would welcome your contributions in some way. We’re looking at a number of ways to get people involved in some way - maybe wikis, maybe doing some RSS mashup of blog feed, maybe podcasting. In the end, it will probably be a mix of all these things and more.

This is a new implementation of an existing course, so we’re still not exactly sure where it will end up. If you want to get involved to see where it goes, leave a comment or send me an e-mail (robwall at gmail dot com).

There is some irony in my being involved with this course but that’s another blog post that will have to wait.

I love Google Docs and I love the videos made by Common Craft. The combination of the two makes me positively giddy:

Video: Google Docs in Plain English | Common Craft - In Plain English Our second client production was for the Google Docs team. For the first time, we got a chance to work on a product that we use every day. This video was timed to accompany the release of Google’s new presentation product.

These guys produce the best videos to explain some of the basic web technologies. Their video on RSS is a must view. When I want to explain some of these things to teachers, I’ll point them to these videos. Thanks to MColeman for the link via Twitter.

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We knew this was coming when Google acquired Tonic back in April. And now its here. {Happy dance}

No longer shall we be held hostage by Microsoft. From now on our allegiance shall be with Google. That’s an improvement, right? :^)

{begin sarcasm}Oh how I do love the lockdown on my ability to customize my account with our new Windows computer system at my school. I’m so happy that the IT folks are preventing me and my students from doing useful things that might interfere with their ability to manage the system. We wouldn’t want students’ learning to interfere with their system, would we?{end sarcasm}

I am feeling loathing towards our school division system administrators right now, and very bad words are prominent in my inner monologue. The reason - Google Notebook. Google Notebook itself is not the cause of my loathing, merely a symptom. I think that Google Notebook is a terrific research tool. I would love to be able to introduce it as a resource for the students and other staff here at the school. My favourite feature of GN is the extension that allows highlighted section of text on a web page to be clipped and added to a notebook along with the address of the web page it came from. The notebooks can be shared or published so that teachers are able to follow along the process of a student’s research. This is a great tool from Google, and one that too few people (especially students and teachers) know about.

But I can’t install the extension on IE on our system. I don’t have the rights to add an extension to my browser. I’m not surprised about this, considering the control issues of the current IT regime. So, being a resourceful and geeky kind of guy, I thought I thwart the IT guys by running the portable version of Firefox, which runs off a USB drive. I could then install the notebook extension.

Alas, this does not work. I have other apps on my USB drive - Skype, PuTTY and Opera (which I am currently running) and others which all run just tickety-boo. Firefox seems to be singled out and prevented from funning running (Oops - apparently I was too upset to type correctly). I can’t install the GN extension on IE, and I can’t run Firefox. These are the only two browsers that support the plugin. I can still use GN, but without the extension it is only flying on one wing.

As an isolated event, this is an inconvenience to me. But it’s not just an isolated event. It also prevents teachers and students from using a wonerfully useful research tool to its fullest. It is symptomatic of an unfortunate fact in many school divisions that education is secondary to the demands of the IT department. If that’s not a case of the tail wagging the dog, I don’t know what is. When that happens, something is seriously wrong with the system.

Working on two online course projects has given me the impetus to take a look back at some of the things I learned and some of the work that I did while working on my M.Ed. I think I have learned a few things about online learning and instructional design. One of the constant themes - almost a fundamental principle - that I found in my classes and readings was a simple and obvious one. Online learning is different from classroom based learning. If you have experience developing online course this may elicit a “Well - d’uh”, but if you are a novice at online course design you would do well to keep this in mind.

The most eloquent articulation of this concept came from David Wiley in an article he wrote in TechTrends entitled The Polo Parable. Go ahead and have a read. If you haven’t read it before, it’s well worth it. I’ll wait here until you get back.

Good story, that one. I think David gets right to the kernel of the concept in the epilogue:

The moral of the story is that the concatenation of English words “move my class online” is perhaps the most preposterous sequence of syllables ever to escape the mouth. And yet we all unconsciously fall prey to the subtle wiles of the siren’s song – “just do what you always did… those tried and true techniques you have battle tested in the classroom will serve you well online … trust what you know… do what you have always done… that’s the responsible thing to do.” Imagining that classroom teaching techniques can be successful transplanted into an online environment is even more ridiculous than assuming that the water polo play book will, unaltered, lead to a winning polo season on horseback.

I’ve been re-reading a paper I wrote in which I developed some of these ideas. I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find that the paper, written way back in 2004, still seems relevant. I guess that although three years in internet time equates with about a decade of real world time, basic concepts about teaching and learning persist. If you nodded your head while reading the Polo Parable, that proves the point.

At the time Rick suggested that I revise the paper a bit and get it published. I think he meant the dead tree kind of publishing where a few other people get to judge the quality of your work then decide if it’s worth the rest of the world seeing. Bah, I say. I have the interweb to disseminate my work to the rest of the world. It’s a longish read - about 23ish pages of dead tree, not including the references, but here it is: Before you snorkel that horse ….

Yes, this entire post was written just to pimp my paper. I feel cheap, but it’s out there now. I think it was the best work I did during my M.Ed. so I wanted to share it with you. I’m hoping to revise it and bring it up to date, so if you have any comments leave them here.

I’m getting started on a couple of interesting instructional design projects right now. One is the design of an online computer science class for Grade 11 students. I’ve taught CompSci many times before and used a blended instructional model where the students and I were all in the same room, and all the resources and assignments were online. It shouldn’t be too much of a stretch to adapt that to being completely online. I have a personal stake in how well the course is designed because I’ll be teaching it next semester.

I’m also working with Alec in the design of a grad level class (Ed Curriculum and Instruction 831 from the University of Regina if you’re interested in joining the fun). We’re going to be looking at open, connected and social technologies in the classroom and appropriate pedagogies in the connected age. It should be a lot of fun, but I guess that’s the whole point of these things.

My problem with both of these projects is where to organize all my notes and ideas. I have OmniOutliner Pro for organizing all my hierarchical lists like to do lists, learning objectives and that sort of thing. Or I could use Notebook from Circus Ponies, or Journler to keep track of general sorts of notes in addition to hierarchical things. Freemind is a great program for brainstorming or mind mapping, and it’s even open source to add to the goodness. In keeping with the spirit of the EC and I class, I could use some of the terrific online tools - Google Docs and Google Notebook for collaborative writing/note taking. How about Mindmeister or bubbl.us for some mind maps online. Of course, there’s always good old Wikispaces or PB Wiki (or many others that I don’t use or know about). My brain is addled with the surfeit of tools and choices that I’m not sure where to begin.

Maybe I’ll just go back to the basics!


(by Olivander, released under Creative Commons AT,NC,SA license)

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We got a new one up - EdTech Posse 3.1. We (Alec, Heather, Dean and me) about Twitter and all sorts of fun stuff.

And a personal note to Apple - thank you for removing the 1 hour and 6 minute limit for podcasts in the new GarageBand, and for direct mp3 exports. You have made my life much easier, and justified the cost for the iLife upgrade.